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It also deserves our notice , that all the prophets who censure the misconduct of their nation held the subject of sacrifices as the point in question , and never referred to the abuse of any other rite . He concludes with summing up his a rgument thus : I . The institution of sacrifices was not invented for the remission of sins .
II . Neither was the shedding of blood essential as an' atonement ; for pancakes served also as a pacification to cleanse the si * ner . III . That , generally speaking , sacrifices were not at all essential to human salvation , and accordingly they were ceremonial , local and temporary by law * but by no means absolute .
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74 On the Diviyis Government .
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certain limits , and that the divine Being will so regulate his final dispensations , that rewards and punishments shall be adapted to the actions done , and man ' s final state be determined according to his merit . Prophecies foretelling events dependent
on the determinations of the mind of man , are impossible under this scheme as they involve a contradiction . And it is dangerous to say , that human reason is so weak , that that may yet be possible which implies a contradiction y because according to this
mode of reasoning , all our conclusions concerning religion woulcj be equally uncertain , nor could we deduce the being of a God from , any apparent contradiction that the supposition that there is no such being involves . Miracles according to this scheme are possible , as well as in the former scheme .
That God has given to the human mind such a power as this second scheme supposes , appears to be agreeable to the common apprehensions of mankind , who seem generally to
imagine that at any given time of action , they had it in their power to do this or its contrary . Both schemes seem to provide for the divine government ; for although the latter admits , that when God created man he knew
nothing what , in this world , would be the result of his conduct ; yet having , by the fixed laws of matter , limited the power of mischief , his ultimate dispensations can adjudicate all things according to perfect equity . I know of no other scheme of the
divine government consistent with itself ; and if any of your correspondents choose to advert to them , it will gratify your humble servant . AN INQUIRER .
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Leigh Street , Red Lion Square , Jan . 16 , 1816 .
Sir , YO UR correspondent , Mr . Prout , in a letter to you , which you have put into my hand , after referring
to my papers in reply to Mr . Belsham , on the pre-existence of Jesus Christ , published in the third volume of the Monthly Repository , pp . 379 —382 , 470—475 , 551—558 , 653—659 , and 718—723 , says , " I confess that F am rather surprised at his ( Mr . Marsom ' s ) almost instantaneous conversion to tie . Unitarian faith so late in
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On the Divine Government . THERE are only two schemes of the divine government , either consistent in themselves , that I know of , or which have any pretensions to reason or the common apprehensions
of mankind . The first is , that at the creation , the Divine Being , subjected all that he had made to fixed and invariable laws , that both matter and mind , whatever they be , are governed by such laws , that consequently every thing happens , as he has appointed
it , every thing was to him foreseen and determined , all is an universal settled scheme of Providence ; prophecies are possible , because nothing is contingent ; and miracles are also
possible , as they might be included in the first and general plan of the divine economy . Every being performs his part , and the final dispensations of Deity will follow his pleasure concerning all creatures .
The second scheme is , that God at the creation subjected matter to fixed laws , but gave a power to mind , of self-determination , so that man , the previous circumstances being the same , can perform the action A . and
its contrary B . This scheme supposes , that whatever depends upon the determination of the human mind , was left loose , and could not be foreseen by the Creator , yet that pleasure and pain were fixed within
the advocates of the latter are eagerly catching at every twig which falls from tt ^ e decayed tree of the forme r to support their equally corrupt , and , we tiust , deroted cause .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1816, page 74, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2449/page/10/
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